This invention relates to the field of data communications. More particularly, a system and methods are provided for improving the streaming of content from a wireless device.
Wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers are often used to view movies, photographs and other content. However, such devices typically have small display screens, poor sound quality and/or other limitations. Schemes have been developed to allow a user to stream content from a wireless device to a more robust device, such as a television or a desktop computer that has a larger display screen, better speakers and/or other benefits.
However, these schemes can suffer from drawbacks that may detract from a user's enjoyment of the streamed media. For example, the content must not only be delivered to the wireless device (e.g., through a telephone service provider's network and a transmitter), but then must be re-transmitted from the wireless device to the destination device or some intermediary (e.g., a wireless access point).
While wireless communication technologies continue to improve, there are latency issues, range limitations, vulnerabilities to interference, limits on transmission rates, bandwidth limitations, etc. And, while the wireless device is streaming content to another device, it may be unable to handle a telephone call, a peripheral component or some other normal operation, or such operation may be deteriorated in quality or it may interrupt the streaming.